0:00:11 > 0:00:15Photographer David Hurn is 83, and still working.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19He's flown from his home in Wales to LA, to meet a film star
0:00:19 > 0:00:22he hasn't seen for nearly 50 years.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27We're on our way to see Jane Fonda.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32I'm slightly apprehensive.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34And when I last saw her,
0:00:34 > 0:00:41we were extremely close, a closeness based on trust, mutual trust.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45And of course, in that time,
0:00:45 > 0:00:52media has become less trustworthy, and I'm just hoping that she doesn't
0:00:52 > 0:00:55think that I might have fallen into that trap.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Which I haven't, obviously, but I could understand if,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04when I meet her, she's a little bit apprehensive.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12I love shooting pictures, because it's kind of like a game.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16You're trying to capture, in one picture, the essence of what
0:01:16 > 0:01:18you feel about something.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29For more than 60 years, David Hurn has been an acclaimed photographer.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35He's taken pictures of ordinary people, and the most famous.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Across the world, and in his homeland of Wales.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48In all of his photographs there's a humanity, a warmth,
0:01:48 > 0:01:49and an impish sense of humour.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Oh, my God, David!
0:01:58 > 0:02:03- David, how many years has it been? 60, 50?- 50. Too long.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04BOTH SIGH
0:02:04 > 0:02:08- Oh, we spent so much time together! - I know, and you look so gorgeous.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11You were the only one that took pictures of "Barbarella"
0:02:11 > 0:02:13- that whole time. - Yeah, absolutely.- Yeah.- It was fun.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Since 1974, David Hurn has lived in the village of Tintern
0:02:32 > 0:02:33in the Wye Valley.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38CAMERA BEEPS
0:02:38 > 0:02:39CAMERA SHUTTERS
0:02:39 > 0:02:42I remember coming to Tintern Abbey as a treat.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44I must have been, again, four or five,
0:02:44 > 0:02:45or something like that.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47And I remember thinking it was nice,
0:02:47 > 0:02:49so I thought, "Well, if I go
0:02:49 > 0:02:52"back to Tintern, the vibes might be good".
0:02:52 > 0:02:56I saw the house straightaway, and I bought it the same day.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59And I've been blissfully happy here, it's a very happy place.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09The cottage in Tintern is a treasure trove of 60 years and more
0:03:09 > 0:03:11of taking pictures.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22David's decision to be a photographer was accidental.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25Originally, he was set on a career in the Army,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28but one photograph in a magazine changed all that.
0:03:32 > 0:03:39These are the original Picture Posts that I saw when I was at Sandhurst,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42in the officer's mess, and...
0:03:42 > 0:03:46..I was there, and opened up this page, looked at this picture,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48and started to cry.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52And crying is not what you normally do in the officer's mess.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58And the reason why it had such an emotional impact for me is that
0:03:58 > 0:04:01my dad was away during most of the Second World War.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05And when he came back, one of the first things that he did
0:04:05 > 0:04:10was to take my mum with me in tow to Howells in Cardiff,
0:04:10 > 0:04:11and he bought her a hat.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14When I saw this picture...
0:04:15 > 0:04:19What is it? It's a picture of a Russian army officer
0:04:19 > 0:04:24buying his wife a hat, and so that brought back the memory.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Being at Sandhurst, I had, you know, quite reasonably,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32heard, sort of, propaganda about the Russians being the enemy,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and, you know, they all ate their children, or something like that.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37And suddenly, I realised that I...
0:04:38 > 0:04:43I actually believed the photograph more than the propaganda.
0:04:43 > 0:04:44I looked at this and thought,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47"Hang on, these people are actually ordinary,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49"they're like my mum and dad".
0:04:49 > 0:04:52And that had such an incredible effect on me that I literally,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55at that point, decided I wanted to be a photographer.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59CRASHING
0:04:59 > 0:05:05David's first opportunity to follow that dream came in Budapest in 1956,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07when the Hungarian people rose up against their
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Russian-backed government.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11GUNFIRE
0:05:11 > 0:05:14On spec, he hitchhiked across Europe, and was soon in
0:05:14 > 0:05:16the heat of the action.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22When I was in Budapest, I was aware that I had no idea
0:05:22 > 0:05:26what was going on, you know, so I've always had good instincts,
0:05:26 > 0:05:31trying to get hold of good people... to advise, you know.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35And it seemed to me that I had to work out where the best journalists
0:05:35 > 0:05:40were, and Life magazine had some very brilliant writers there,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43but they either had no photographer that had gotten in,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45or maybe one had gotten in.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50And they saw in me a fresh face, but they didn't realise that,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53sort of, in the back room, I was still reading my book on
0:05:53 > 0:05:55how to use my camera.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59And they said, "Oh, well, you can be a photographer,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03"you can work with us here," because they didn't have anybody else.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07David's photographs of Budapest immediately stood out.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Much more than straightforward reportage, they showed his eye for
0:06:10 > 0:06:14the quirky detail, and were reproduced back in Britain.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21The pictures that I took in Hungary were published a little bit
0:06:21 > 0:06:22in Picture Post.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28And this is The Observer, November the 11th, '56.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34This is extraordinary, I remember, when I took this picture,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38being incredibly moved by the fact that this child
0:06:38 > 0:06:40was so young with a gun.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46I guess I was 22...
0:06:46 > 0:06:48'56, yes, 22, OK.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53It was the first instance I had seen of children being...
0:06:55 > 0:06:57..in a war situation.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04And this was the camera, I took this camera, this lens,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08and a pocket full of film, and went to Hungary.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10And...
0:07:10 > 0:07:15And that was really the start of everything, that was...
0:07:15 > 0:07:17..you know, from then on, it was being serious, you know.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Without this, perhaps, who knows?
0:07:24 > 0:07:28David's Hungarian photographs, and many more, featured as part
0:07:28 > 0:07:33of Photo London, a major photography event held in May 2017
0:07:33 > 0:07:34at Somerset House.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38David's show was called "Swaps", and included some of his best-known
0:07:38 > 0:07:41pictures, along with those he swapped with other members
0:07:41 > 0:07:45of Magnum, the world's most prestigious photographic collective.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The exhibition shows this extensive collection
0:07:49 > 0:07:50that David has built up by
0:07:50 > 0:07:52exchanging prints with
0:07:52 > 0:07:53other photographers.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55But in the show, we've really just concentrated on
0:07:55 > 0:07:59his Magnum colleagues, because he's got hundreds of these prints,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02and we're showing 70 or 80, and he has accumulated this
0:08:02 > 0:08:06remarkable collection for absolutely no outlay.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10So, it's a very clever idea, and I think you can see here in the show,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14you know, the quality of his selection, and the quality of
0:08:14 > 0:08:16his eye in not only him as a photographer himself,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19but the pictures that he's chosen from the different photographers
0:08:19 > 0:08:21really make a good exhibition.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Great photographs are now valued in tens of thousands of pounds.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31But when David started swapping, nobody thought of collecting them.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Photographs were only produced for a purpose, of which one of the
0:08:36 > 0:08:39purposes was to go into magazines and newspapers.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41So there wasn't that sort of art thing.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45So if you said to somebody, "I really like your picture,"
0:08:45 > 0:08:48all they were doing was giving you a bit of a paper, basically.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51So there was no, sort of, thought that it had a value.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54And so I started to collect, at that point.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57You know, I would go out of my way and knock on doors and things,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01and one of the people that I wanted to meet was Bill Brandt.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05And so, he was a great hero of mine.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07- So did you knock on Bill Brandt's... Oh, sorry, David...- Yeah?
0:09:07 > 0:09:09So you knocked on Bill Brandt's door, and he came in and he said,
0:09:09 > 0:09:11- "Oh, take a print"?- More or less.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Fantastic.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17What is perfect for me was that, obviously, I shot all my pictures...
0:09:18 > 0:09:21..just the way I shoot pictures, you know, of which I hoped
0:09:21 > 0:09:25went into a magazine, cos that's what stops me dying of malnutrition.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29Somebody buys a picture and I can work for another week, you know.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31And now, what is puzzling...
0:09:32 > 0:09:38..is that those pictures have gone from being just journalism,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42or something like that, they've gone from that to being actually
0:09:42 > 0:09:44that that's most sold on gallery walls, you know.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48I never quite understand how this works.
0:09:48 > 0:09:49Don't worry, we'll guide you.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53- OK.- Oh, there you are, good.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59By the early '60s,
0:09:59 > 0:10:00David was in London,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04building a reputation as a photojournalist.
0:10:04 > 0:10:05He was friends with future film
0:10:05 > 0:10:10director Ken Russell, who filmed David for two BBC documentaries.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14HE GROANS
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Sit down... Oh, it's cold, isn't it?
0:10:17 > 0:10:20All I want you to do is to go over, sit in the bath,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23and then the pictures are all going to be sort of semi-abstract,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27long legs, funny hands, almost fashion-y.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29Do you understand exactly what I want?
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Anyway, you sit there and I'll dictate and go, OK? Go, bless you.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Most of the time, I was spending my time in coffee bars,
0:10:36 > 0:10:37and things like that.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41And I'd bumped into somebody called Ken Russell, you know.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45And he...had just given up being a ballet dancer,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47and he was making films,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51but he would talk about this with a passion, and I could talk
0:10:51 > 0:10:56about what I was trying to do with a passion, and we got on,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59because we were talking about something we were doing.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05And, of course, I was surrounded
0:11:05 > 0:11:08by incredible young people.
0:11:08 > 0:11:09I mean, roughly the same age as me.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14You know, when you think that... McCullin was starting at the...
0:11:14 > 0:11:17with me, Philip Jones Griffiths was starting.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21I mean, this, in my opinion is the greatest block of British
0:11:21 > 0:11:23photographers there's been.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27And they were altogether starting, and boy,
0:11:27 > 0:11:33is that good, to work with people of that stature.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36There we were, young photographers talking about
0:11:36 > 0:11:38a word called "photojournalism".
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Something we didn't really totally understand.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43And so, when we got together, we kind of...
0:11:44 > 0:11:47..we would just meet each other and feel excited, and happy,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51and enthusiastic, so we kind of were like young puppies, really.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55We were just so wound up with what we thought the future
0:11:55 > 0:11:57could bring to us.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01And it turns out it wasn't a bad future that came to us, in the end.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06An incredible bit of luck was that the colour supplements started,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and suddenly, all these other guys who were in competition
0:12:09 > 0:12:12with each other for a certain kind of story, but always
0:12:12 > 0:12:17in the various magazines, there was a little slot for the ordinary.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20You know, they needed a bit of light relief.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23And the only person that was really interested in doing that
0:12:23 > 0:12:27as their major thing, as their authorship, was me.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30So I didn't think I ever did a story that wasn't published.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36David's work wasn't only light relief.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Ken Russell's second film shows him
0:12:38 > 0:12:40photographing a group of nuns,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42caring for the sick in London's slumland.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53These are lovely, these are, I think they're called the Sisters of Mercy,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58who were nursing sisters that worked in Notting Hill Gate,
0:12:58 > 0:13:04and they worked with people that were so near-death that hospitals
0:13:04 > 0:13:07and things wouldn't take them, and they just used to go and sit
0:13:07 > 0:13:10with them for the last couple of days of their life.
0:13:12 > 0:13:13And I mean, this is extraordinary,
0:13:13 > 0:13:18this poor man, you know, probably died the next day, or something.
0:13:18 > 0:13:24And this lovely lady, with great tenderness, looking after him.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Boy oh boy, that's a tough job.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34But this is what I do, photographically, I love this
0:13:34 > 0:13:37sort of...idea of getting...
0:13:38 > 0:13:43..right inside a story, so that you know the people that are involved,
0:13:43 > 0:13:49and you're part of the...an accepted part what's going on.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52And then you, it's simple, as I often say, "You just stand in the
0:13:52 > 0:13:54"right place, and press the button at the right time".
0:13:55 > 0:13:58And it takes care of itself.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01But this is very much me.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05This idea of doing something on a particular person...
0:14:06 > 0:14:08..that does something really worthwhile, you know.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17And they loved the car!
0:14:17 > 0:14:18They loved the car.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22One of the nuns in the car, and we go for a drive,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26and then, when I came back, there was almost like a queue of them.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30We spent a whole flipping day, me just driving around with them,
0:14:30 > 0:14:31each having a turn...
0:14:33 > 0:14:36..sitting in the passenger seat of the car.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38They absolutely loved it.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45ENGINE ROARS
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Alongside his documentary work,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51David was at the heart of London's swinging '60s,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54taking pictures of fashion models and movie stars.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59He was on location for A Hard Day's Night, and captured the Beatles
0:14:59 > 0:15:01at the height of their fame.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08Most of the people I photographed, you know,
0:15:08 > 0:15:10people like Peter O'Toole, et cetera, you know, Peter O'Toole
0:15:10 > 0:15:14was just out of RADA...at that time.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18And these were people in the main starting their careers,
0:15:18 > 0:15:24and if you have a sort of style of doing that, and my style
0:15:24 > 0:15:28was very simple, which that I knew that I wasn't very good
0:15:28 > 0:15:31at posing people, I wasn't interested in that,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35so I would just sit and chat to people, and I'd take pictures
0:15:35 > 0:15:37as they were sitting around.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39And that developed into a kind of
0:15:39 > 0:15:41style, and then, you know,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43if I look at the group of friends
0:15:43 > 0:15:44that I had at that time, who,
0:15:44 > 0:15:49in hindsight, are an extraordinary group of people who,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51as I said before,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53luckily I photographed them
0:15:53 > 0:15:54as a natural instinct,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57and my instinct, all the time, is to take pictures of people.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01It was enormous fun, it was enormous fun.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05David also worked on many classic
0:16:05 > 0:16:07films, including the Bond movies.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11His most famous Bond photo nearly didn't happen, when the publicist
0:16:11 > 0:16:12forgot to bring the gun.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15But David had a solution.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19One of my hobbies was, quite serious, target shooting...
0:16:19 > 0:16:20..but with an air pistol.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27And I said, "It happens that the pistol I use is a Walther.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29"And their pistol has a long
0:16:29 > 0:16:31"barrel on it, but when they come
0:16:31 > 0:16:32"to do the poster,
0:16:32 > 0:16:35"the graphic artist can cut it off".
0:16:35 > 0:16:38So, there is Sean Connery with his air pistol.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43Of course, they forget to tell the graphic artist to do this,
0:16:43 > 0:16:48so if you look at the posters for the first few films,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50they're all of the Sean Connery with an air pistol.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56These things are just wonderfully bizarre, aren't they?
0:16:56 > 0:16:59I mean, it just makes me laugh every time I think of it, you know.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03MUSIC: (Theme From) Barbarella by The Glitterhouse
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Her name is Barbarella.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10And she makes science fiction something else.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15Jane Fonda is Barbarella.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20The star David had the closest relationship with was Jane Fonda.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22They met on the set of the film Barbarella,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28The actress had vetoed all of the other photographers
0:17:28 > 0:17:31the film's producers had brought in.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36So I went over and shot some pictures, and she looked at mine,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39and she vetoed, you know, quite a lot, and...
0:17:39 > 0:17:43..so I kept them, and then showed them to her later, and she vetoed
0:17:43 > 0:17:46a different lot, and I said, "This is silly, you're not even
0:17:46 > 0:17:51"vetoing the same pictures, why don't you just have trust in me,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55"and let's get on?" And she laughed, and we were away.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58- It's lovely to see you, it really is.- Oh, David.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Yeah, I think about you all the time, and I'm so happy...
0:18:01 > 0:18:04- I know, yeah.- ..that you're here. - It's very emotional.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07- We had a lot of fun.- We did, we did. - We really did.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Even though we haven't seen each other for years, David,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12there's no getting away from you, because every single time
0:18:12 > 0:18:14a fan asks me for an autograph,
0:18:14 > 0:18:16invariably, it's a picture from Barbarella.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20And you are the only still photographer that took the
0:18:20 > 0:18:23publicity stills that became so iconic.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27- On the cover of what, how many magazines?- Like 100 covers, we had?
0:18:27 > 0:18:29- Yeah, yeah.- Something like that.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31Extraordinary amount, the most I think any film's ever had.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35And you...took all of them, you were the only photographer.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37I know, I was so brilliant.
0:18:37 > 0:18:38THEY LAUGH
0:18:38 > 0:18:40That's right, you were!
0:18:40 > 0:18:42- Oh, I remember that.- Yeah, yeah...
0:18:42 > 0:18:43SHE GASPS
0:18:43 > 0:18:44The day that we did the naked...
0:18:46 > 0:18:50- ..the title sequence, when I did the striptease in space...- I know, yes.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52- That's right. - ..that I got drunk to do.
0:18:52 > 0:18:53HE LAUGHS
0:18:53 > 0:18:55I probably was drunk there.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57And then we had to shoot it over again the next day,
0:18:57 > 0:18:59- you remember that?- Yeah, yeah.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01So I not only got drunk the next day, I also was hung over.
0:19:01 > 0:19:02THEY LAUGH
0:19:02 > 0:19:06I don't find Barbarella a very sexy movie, I think it's more
0:19:06 > 0:19:07kind of fun and camp.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11But what I've discovered over the decade, the millennia,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14is that for boys of a certain age, this was...
0:19:15 > 0:19:17..their coming-of-age movie.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Which makes me very happy.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23A lot of boys had their first erection with...including
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Richard Branson, who volunteered that information to me.
0:19:29 > 0:19:30SHE LAUGHS
0:19:33 > 0:19:35And this I like, as well, because
0:19:35 > 0:19:39one of the things I loved was the fact that you were so respectful
0:19:39 > 0:19:42to the crew and they loved you so much, and it's really nice
0:19:42 > 0:19:46when you get somebody like yourself in a film that the crew like.
0:19:46 > 0:19:47How can you tell the crew like me?
0:19:47 > 0:19:50- I'm over here, and they're over there looking.- Well, because...
0:19:50 > 0:19:52- Well...- They did, though, we had a good time.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Because I knew all the crew, and one of the nice things about being
0:19:55 > 0:19:58a photographer like this is one can be close to you,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02- but one can be close to the crew, as well.- And you can find the scoop.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05It's a good sign, when people get on with the crew,
0:20:05 > 0:20:06it's a pretty good sign.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10See, what's so interesting is
0:20:10 > 0:20:13you were on the set for Barbarella
0:20:13 > 0:20:17but then you were in our home with the personal family stuff,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and not many people have taken pictures of that time in my life.
0:20:20 > 0:20:21Absolutely.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Here we are, this is the dogs.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Oh, my God, remember when we rented that...
0:20:27 > 0:20:30I know! Rented a plane to fly them all back.
0:20:30 > 0:20:31A plane to fly them all back!
0:20:31 > 0:20:34- Look at them all. Oh, my God. - I know, isn't that lovely?
0:20:36 > 0:20:38Wow, I remember that, we laughed so hard.
0:20:40 > 0:20:41You know when you've...
0:20:43 > 0:20:44..been married and then...
0:20:46 > 0:20:47And then you've been divorced,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50and the husband has died and decades have gone by,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and then you see these pictures of happiness...
0:20:53 > 0:20:56- Yes.- And it's very nice to remember that, yeah,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58he did teach me how play chess...
0:20:59 > 0:21:01..and we were happy.
0:21:01 > 0:21:02Yeah.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06And this is my favourite picture of you.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Well, that should... Means you don't like me very much.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17No, it's just so full of joy and so relaxed.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21And I love that sort of picture where... You can only take a picture
0:21:21 > 0:21:24like that if you're really very close to somebody.
0:21:24 > 0:21:25- Yes.- Yeah. It's...
0:21:25 > 0:21:26It's...
0:21:27 > 0:21:28I remember that hammock.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30I know, that was in the garden.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38So, talk to me with lots of hands going.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40- Oh, you want the Italian. - Yeah, yeah.
0:21:40 > 0:21:41Well, as far as I know...
0:21:41 > 0:21:45- VOICEOVER:- I could tell literally within seconds that, you know,
0:21:45 > 0:21:46this was going to be fine.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52I guess I was a little bit nervous as to what the reaction would be,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54and it was just immediate warmth.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57I mean, it was kind of taking off...
0:21:58 > 0:22:00..from where we were before.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Part of the trick is to get to that relaxed state,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08but still remain being a photographer, you know.
0:22:08 > 0:22:09And that I could do.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13And it's just lovely that that relationship has obviously continued.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15And I...
0:22:15 > 0:22:16I was very moved.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Since his first visit there in 1962,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32the USA and its people have always been
0:22:32 > 0:22:34a source of fascination for David.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39He's photographed across the States, from New York to Arizona,
0:22:39 > 0:22:41and still finds it inspiring.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51We're on Venice Beach, California.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56At the play beach in a sense, the eccentric play beach in a way.
0:22:58 > 0:22:59I love America.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01The people are very open.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05You can kind of talk to anybody.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09I mean, just now I was on the beach and there was somebody there
0:23:09 > 0:23:12meditating, doing his whatever he does, you know.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I said, "Good morning," and instantly, you know, he was,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17"Good morning" back, and,
0:23:17 > 0:23:18"Oh, what are you doing?"
0:23:18 > 0:23:20sort of thing.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24And suddenly you're in a conversation, and then, you know...
0:23:24 > 0:23:28And my photography relies on
0:23:28 > 0:23:32warmth and liking people and trying to understand
0:23:32 > 0:23:33what they're doing.
0:23:33 > 0:23:40And, you know, if you get that feedback it really helps enormously.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44So, I've never not liked being in America.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46It's always been...
0:23:47 > 0:23:48..a joy to me.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Well, I saw them.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56It seemed to me they were amongst the trees
0:23:56 > 0:23:57and they were doing something
0:23:57 > 0:24:00which I don't normally see people doing in Tintern.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05It was... The pattern was right,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07the geometry of a picture's very important to me.
0:24:07 > 0:24:14And I realised that, and I got in and asked them what they were doing.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17And they're lovely because they're out there and they're trying and
0:24:17 > 0:24:19they're practising, and I just think
0:24:19 > 0:24:21that's so incredibly positive, isn't it?
0:24:21 > 0:24:24I mean, I'll always be puzzled by this thing of people saying, "Well,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26"I can't take pictures of people."
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Well, it's simple.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30You go up and take an interest in them,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and then you point your camera at them.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36And if you have a very good sense of design and, you know,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38if you observe rather than look.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41In other words, you're watching the way hands move
0:24:41 > 0:24:46and all those sorts of things going on, you get a picture.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49And if you're incredibly lucky maybe it's a nice picture,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51which lasts the test of time.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04Many of David's most enduring images are of Wales.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Born to a Welsh family and brought up in Cardiff,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11he was one of the first photographers at Aberfan in 1966.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16The tragedy, where 116 children died when a coal tip collapsed on their
0:25:16 > 0:25:18school, had a profound impact on him.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25That affected me more I think than any story I'd ever done.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28I was in Bristol on my way back to London
0:25:28 > 0:25:31and heard on the radio about it.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34And so we turned the car around and we went to Aberfan,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37and we arrived I think in the afternoon.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43And this was obscene, you know, it was an obscene event.
0:25:44 > 0:25:50There were miners trying to dig their kids out of slurry, you know,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53that had been suffocated to death.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56I mean, it's just about the most extreme situation
0:25:56 > 0:25:57you could think of.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00It's absolutely obvious that they didn't want us there.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03But against that,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07that everything that you feel about photography means that you should be
0:26:07 > 0:26:12there. And so that's very delicate situation to work in and, you know,
0:26:12 > 0:26:14one does one's best.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18And some of my pictures were shown in Parliament and things like that.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22And I did later get some very nice letters
0:26:22 > 0:26:27from miners saying how pleased they were one was there.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30But it was really at that point that...
0:26:33 > 0:26:35..I felt I wanted to come back to Wales.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43David returned to Wales in 1970.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Leaving behind the world of fashion and movies,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49he travelled around the country,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51photographing its landscapes and its people.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58I'm a photographer, so it seemed to me logical that what I did was to
0:26:58 > 0:27:02wander around Wales photographing the things
0:27:02 > 0:27:04that I thought in some way
0:27:04 > 0:27:05were significant.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11I think I came back at a really quite lucky time photographically.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17Wales still had some of the mines, you know, but they were closing.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18Steel was closing.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Slate had kind of finished.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25It really was a time of change.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28And not only change, but change that you could see visually.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45We're at the very top of Snowdon...
0:27:46 > 0:27:50..and it's... It's just a magical place, isn't it?
0:27:50 > 0:27:56I mean, it's everything that I want, being a photographer, you know.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00I mean, you're surrounded by people all doing wonderfully eccentric
0:28:00 > 0:28:01things. And you can...
0:28:01 > 0:28:05If you observe a lot, you know, they set up wonderful patterns.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09And every so often they do something, and that's what I love.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11I love those little moments.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Because the picture's always out there,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15you're always taking it from out there,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17because it's not set up, you know.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20But sometimes you just see people come together,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23and they come together in an extraordinary magical form.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26But you're a photographer and you can capture it
0:28:26 > 0:28:28in a fraction of a second if you're very lucky.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31You know, most of the time it goes and you miss it.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35But when you get home and look at it and find it, you think,
0:28:35 > 0:28:37"God, that was really fun."
0:28:37 > 0:28:39You know, "That was worthwhile."
0:28:39 > 0:28:41And I make my living doing this?
0:28:41 > 0:28:43I mean, heaven forbid.
0:28:43 > 0:28:44It's magical.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Last time I was here was 1970.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59- Oh, wow, wow.- So, where have you all come from?
0:29:01 > 0:29:03- New Zealand.- New Zealand! That's a long walk.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05We started yesterday!
0:29:07 > 0:29:10I think he has this wonderful ability
0:29:10 > 0:29:12to take photographs that everyone can identify with.
0:29:14 > 0:29:15You know, he says himself
0:29:15 > 0:29:18that he likes to take photographs of ordinary people
0:29:18 > 0:29:19doing ordinary things.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22And when you see his photographs,
0:29:22 > 0:29:24you can really relate to them.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27But there's also kind of an underlying humour.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31I do find that the photographs that he's taken of his home country of
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Wales are beautifully observed.
0:29:33 > 0:29:39And I think in years to come are going to be very significant photographs
0:29:39 > 0:29:41that document society at different points
0:29:41 > 0:29:44through the kind of later part of the 20th century.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49One of David's most celebrated pictures of Wales
0:29:49 > 0:29:51shows his extraordinary sense of composition.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57Every component in that picture, the dog, the woman, the cannon,
0:29:57 > 0:29:58the woman with the hat
0:29:58 > 0:30:00walking up the hill - everything is perfect.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03I mean, you could not look at that picture and say,
0:30:03 > 0:30:06"OK, if that person was Photoshopped to the left a bit
0:30:06 > 0:30:07"it might improve it."
0:30:07 > 0:30:09Everything about that picture works.
0:30:09 > 0:30:10And the reason why he's got that is
0:30:10 > 0:30:12because he's patient, he understands,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16he saw the position that had the potential, he waited.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Waited for the situation to sort of fulfil itself, and bang -
0:30:19 > 0:30:21there's the picture. Magic.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25If I say to you I want these pictures by this evening,
0:30:25 > 0:30:27you go off and do it and if it's...
0:30:27 > 0:30:28In 1973,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31David began to pass on these skills
0:30:31 > 0:30:33to a new generation of photographers.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37He was invited to set up a documentary photography course
0:30:37 > 0:30:40in Newport, the first of its kind in the UK.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42..being set against the deadline.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Newport was a wonderful place that...
0:30:45 > 0:30:47Because it's a tough old place, you know.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50And it meant that students could literally go out in the morning
0:30:50 > 0:30:52and shoot some simple little thing
0:30:52 > 0:30:55and bring it back in the afternoon and be critted on it.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59And if it wasn't right, they could be sent out the next day to do
0:30:59 > 0:31:03the same thing again and again and again and again until they began to
0:31:03 > 0:31:05understand how to get it right.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10That's a very professional approach to doing things.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12What you've done is a relationship with three people.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16I think it was important because first off it was documentary photography,
0:31:16 > 0:31:17it wasn't just photography,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20it wasn't sort of commercial photography or art photography.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22He had a very clear idea about what it was trying to do.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26It was trying to look at the world around us and people,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29to engage with that, and tell stories about what was happening.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32And also this teaching method was quite unique, you know,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35because it was very disciplined,
0:31:35 > 0:31:36very tight deadlines.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39So, it really reflected the real professional world.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42So, it really did, you know,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46encourage and steer people towards being a professional photographer.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Award-winning sports photographer Tom Jenkins
0:31:49 > 0:31:52was one of David's students on the Newport course.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57We had to find a subject to do almost every day.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00One roll of film, bring it back, develop it,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03make a contact sheet of it and show it to a tutor.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08And I remember every time I took it to David I was more nervous than
0:32:08 > 0:32:11anyone else, because I knew what a photographer he was.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14And also he was hypercritical.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17So, he would go through every single frame saying,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20"What are you doing there?" "Why did you do that?"
0:32:20 > 0:32:21"Why did you take it at that angle?"
0:32:21 > 0:32:25And then would say, "Actually, look, you're actually going the right way there."
0:32:25 > 0:32:28And so, every single frame was analysed.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32After a while it gave me this incredible discipline to be so much
0:32:32 > 0:32:36more careful about what I was taking and why I was taking things,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40and why I was including that or not including that.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43And he really made me think about what I was doing.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45And gave me this, you know, a discipline
0:32:45 > 0:32:48that I've used ever since, basically.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56David always taught his students to photograph their own surroundings.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59And it's a mantra he stuck to himself,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02documenting the village of Tintern for over 40 years.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07One of his closest friends is the vicar, Nora Hill, who's retiring,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and David's photographing her send-off from the village.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Rev Nora has been the village priest here for a long time.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20She's a remarkable person.
0:33:20 > 0:33:21And I just like her enormously.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I mean, I'm a total non-believer, you know,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28but very early on we kind of came to an agreement
0:33:28 > 0:33:29that she wouldn't try to
0:33:29 > 0:33:34change me and I wouldn't try to change her.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36She has absolutely enriched my life.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41- You're coming down the hall, aren't you?- Yeah.- Yes, yeah.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53One of the things I needed to do at my age is to kind of find something
0:33:53 > 0:33:56I can continue to photograph easily.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00And the beauty about village life is that A, you have access.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03And the next thing is one gets older, you know.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07And if I'm hobbling around with a Zimmer frame in the village I can
0:34:07 > 0:34:10probably get from one end to the other.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12So, I can just continue
0:34:12 > 0:34:14photographing, you know,
0:34:14 > 0:34:19my sort of fantasy death is walking down the high street and falling
0:34:19 > 0:34:20over with a camera and my hand, you know,
0:34:20 > 0:34:25that seems to be about as good as it can get, you know.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29And Nora to come and say something over me.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39But at 83, David is showing no sign of slowing down.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44His home in Tintern remains the centre of operations,
0:34:44 > 0:34:46with thousands of negatives and prints stored there.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54But there is the question of what to do with them in the long term.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58And David has joined forces with the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14This is my earliest visual memory.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19I was brought up in Cardiff, went to nursery school in Cardiff,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22and my mum used to bring me here in the museum,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24I must've been five or six.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29And I always remembered a naughty statue.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33And of course, it turns out that the naughty statute is The Kiss.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38The other thing that I remember from that time is the word "donate".
0:35:38 > 0:35:40I remember my mother saying,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44talking about things in a cabinet and saying,
0:35:44 > 0:35:46"These were donated by..."
0:35:46 > 0:35:50So, in a way it's always been my life's ambition,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54is to donate to the museum.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Here we have a couple of photographs.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02David's donation is substantial, comprising over 2,200 photographs.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05It'll form the basis of a new photography gallery
0:36:05 > 0:36:06at the National Museum.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09I like the idea of it being together.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13David has very recently gifted a large number of photographs to
0:36:13 > 0:36:17the museum. And these come in two collections.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20The first collection is what he calls
0:36:20 > 0:36:22a definitive edit of his archive.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26The second collection is approximately 700 photographs
0:36:26 > 0:36:29or thereabouts from David's private collection.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32And it's a wonderfully unique collection
0:36:32 > 0:36:34that really reflects David's life
0:36:34 > 0:36:38as a photographer, his friendships with other photographers,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41who he has kind of encountered and come into contact throughout that
0:36:41 > 0:36:42period of time.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45It's interesting because into Magnum suddenly there's
0:36:45 > 0:36:48an influx of women photographers.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50We've never had enough women photographers,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53but this is a picture by Newsha,
0:36:53 > 0:36:59who's one of the youngest Magnum photographers, born in Iran,
0:36:59 > 0:37:02worked for a woman's magazine in Iran.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Can you imagine that at the age of 16?
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Which shows courage.
0:37:09 > 0:37:10And she's going to be a big star.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14She's a wonderful photographer, and a lovely, lovely person.
0:37:14 > 0:37:15- Yeah.- You know,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19I'm getting a great deal of pleasure out of giving this to the museum.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26At the end of September 2017,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30David's collection of swaps open The National Museum's brand-new
0:37:30 > 0:37:34photography gallery. It was a chance for old friends to gather and
0:37:34 > 0:37:36celebrate a life in pictures.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49I think the exhibition is a total...
0:37:50 > 0:37:54..extraordinary kind of achievement on David's behalf.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58He's silently collected the most extraordinary collection
0:37:58 > 0:38:01of photography that would cost millions of pounds
0:38:01 > 0:38:04if you try to go out there and start it all over again.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07And he's generously given it to this beautiful museum.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13Young students coming to Cardiff...
0:38:14 > 0:38:17..twice a year, because it'll be a six-month show,
0:38:17 > 0:38:20twice a year are going to see the world's greatest photographers.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24Does that inspire them?
0:38:24 > 0:38:30I hope it does. If I was that age and saw this, boy, boy,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34would it have sparked ambition in me to be like them.